I learnt a good lesson after we moved house 5 times over 7 weeks. Four weeks or longer is the best duration for house sitting. It gives a sitter plenty of time to move in and get settled, without having to pack up too soon. Overlapping sits isn’t much fun either 🙂 Even though there’s two of us, having the dates overlap on sits wastes a lot of time, especially if you need to travel a long way.
So we spent 2 weeks in Gawler which is north of Adelaide, then I went to a house sit close to the city for a couple of days before going back to Gawler, helped John clean the house, then we both went back to the city. We had a very cute little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a very small cheeky kitten to look after, so it was fun. And, it was exciting when the planes kept going overhead very close to the roof! Our 2 year old grandson Andy came to visit one day and fell in love with aeroplanes. Andy went out the front to see them and ran round and round the garden with his arms spread out like the wings of the plane and the dog ran round and round after him! It was pretty funny.
A few days later John took off in one of the planes to do a gig on the Gold Coast. I was left alone to move out and move into our next house sit on the other side of the city, just for 10 days. I looked after some chickens and a sweet cat.
Our next assignment was in the northern suburbs of Adelaide for a bit over 2 weeks, caring for a Mini Schnauzer, a sweet cat and some goldfish.
A few days before that sit finished, our next long sit (7 weeks) started in Clare (an hour and a half’s drive). John stayed in Clare for 2 nights while I cleaned the house and packed up again. We were so pleased to stay in one place in Clare for 7 weeks!
If you want to house sit full time, it’s important to try and schedule the sits one after the other, and without too much travel in between each one. Otherwise, instead of saving money, you may just spend a lot on petrol and not have much time to do your work.